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Welcome to my creative online journal

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I have recently restarted using Instagram (#creativeflourishes - appropriately enough ;) )

I started again when I came across an old abandoned waterworks building that was a photographer's dream. I don't know if I'm doing it right but I get the impression that you can't put lots of pictures in one go on Instagram (maybe you know different? I'm learning!...)

If you like looking at decaying old buildings and want to see the rest in that series, see the link in my right sidebar to my flickr account, swirlyclicks.

But the reason I am on Instagram more now - daily in fact - is that I am taking part in the Kuretake Festival Fun Lettering Instagram (UK) competition. We are given a word, a Christmassy word, to write each day in a creative way. The winner of the competition - ONE winner - will get to win a collection of Zig Kuretake products, which will include Wink of Stella glitter pens, I think.... (But of course it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part!....)

I've been doing this, faithfully every day since the start of December and am trying to vary the style of writing I use, and the products. They would also like you to use Kuretake products if you have them - and I do, as I have SUCH a massive collection of all sorts of pens, pencils, the lot... I really could open my own shop!

These three are my favourites of the ones that I've done so far:

The word 'Candle' was my first one Written with a Zig calligraphic pen and coloured in with crayons:

Day 2's theme was 'Rudolph'. From the time that I read the theme and had got upstairs into my craft room to carry out the task, I had forgotten how to spell!

(Someone on Instagram did kindly point out that the spelling suited the lettering style!) This was written in red, and had a shadow effect added with a black pen. I then embossed the red part with an embossing pen and used clear glossy embossing powder on top.

Finally for this post, was this one:

'Stocking'. I drew the stocking onto the red card background, wrote my letters in black and filled in and around the letters with a brush using Zig white opaque ink. This type of ink is not meant for large areas, its more of a small correction solution but I love how really white and opaque it is, covering the red completely.

(Disclosure: Despite how it looks, I'm not being asked to promote Zig/Kuretake products, I'm just telling you how I'm using them to do this project).

Hope you enjoyed looking at these and maybe would like to take a look yourself. Look up #kuretakefestivefun on Instagram to see other people's take on the subject.

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Stickers as they come in their packets can look fun but when individually put on other items they can look 'lost'. The remedy for this is to give them their very own individual background. You can do any theme - here I just added random colours to these background squares:

...and added monster stickers to make 'inchies', This example (above) was my take on a 'Mixed Media Morsels' follow along on YouTube from Cat Hands. (Morsel No. 6)

This way you can make the stickers bigger and into other shapes - in this case, square. Just add glue when you need to stick them down elsewhere - or use a temporary glue if you want to move them around.

You can also make sticker embellishments for christmas cards and tags which is what I have done here.

For the background on these embellishments I found some textured wallpaper for £1 a roll in a charity shop. I had two types, one with textured squares and the other was a general spotted texture, both looked like snow, which was the look I was going for.

It's very simple to make these sticker backgrounds. I just cut out some of the wallpaper, found some blue paint (in this case, Twinkling H20's for shimmer) and a selection of stickers. (These are old ones from Paperchase). For this effect it's best to use puffy stickers.

I painted some sky in rough squares on the textured wallpaper, but be mindful of the paint pooling!

Then, when the paint was dry, I added the stickers.

Cut them out and you can then add some shading underneath your character with a grey pen to ground it. It looks more professional!

And voila! These will make great tags, especially for children, and they could help in the making of them too. These embellishments could have other uses too such as adding them to christmas dinner place labels....

Hope you enjoyed this simple craft and it has inspired you to have a go.

Monday, 5 December 2016

I am back! It's at Christmas time when I get the urge to be more crafty and when I've done something worth showing I do like the idea of sharing it with others. As I used to...on here....before... many moons ago...!

In fact I've missed this space as a 'showcase' for various different projects that I've been doing and plan to gradually start showing some of them - along with any new stuff, of course.

I've not ventured into Blogland and other people's blogs for ages. To my mind it was never the same when Google changed their blog viewer - I've even forgotten what it was called, it was so long ago. I remember moving onto Feedly, but it has never been the same. I shall try to perservere though.

In order to find out what people are doing in the art world, I've got myself more into YouTube (just watching!), Pinterest (my obsession shows with my 2.2K followers and 8.2K pins! - Pinterest name Nicky{Creative Flourishes} and specialist Facebook groups. Just lately, I've started using Instagram again (#creativeflourishes) as I'm currently doing a Christmas lettering challenge (which I shall tell you about soon).

As far as life goes, I've changed jobs from working in a Pharmacy to working in a stationery shop (part time). As I am obsessed with all things stationery, this was a good move, I think... (although maybe not so much now, the shop has been bought out and we are waiting to hear what's happening next....!)

This has been enough rambling for one post, I will be back soon with my first 'Official Back to Blogging Craft Post' and I have a plan to do many more.

Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Hello again, it's been a little while since I shared my last 'Now' Craft but here I am with the next - Collage. It took me a while to get round to doing this craft because I wasn't sure what theme to use to make my collage. I eventually made myself start by remembering the series of notebooks that I started a while ago.

The first was this one on the theme of slimming and this was the front of the book:

Thursday, 14 May 2015

One of the problems I have when thinking of things to create is that fear of wanting everything that I finish making to be 'right'. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I do really like to be proud of the items that I make. They need to be (in my mind) finished and 'as good as they possibly can be.' This view was changed for me when, amongst other things, I came across this video by Tammy of Daisy Yellow.

What she says, that makes a great deal of sense, is to just enjoy the process. When you are making your Index Card a Day (ICAD) (a Summer art venture run by Tammy that I have done for two years running in the past and highly recommend) you don't need to get hung up on the end result, just immerse yourself in the exploration of your materials, the technique you are trying out, whatever it is, just enjoy carrying out whatever the creative activity is.

So, I thought I'd have a go at it and what better time to try it than with my latest 'Art Technique to do NOW', Art Journaling. I happened to have bought myself a small art journal from Ryman's the stationers recently. The paper size is 6"x4" so it made it very similar to doing an index card.

For my first page I thought I'd go back to a technique I did on an index card a while back. This was the card I made then:

The problem I had was that I couldn't remember how I created it! I'd originally got the technique from an old Craft Stamper magazine and didn't know where it now was. I do remember that I used baby wipes and water soluble oil pastels. So I made a start by laying some colours down:

I wasn't sure if I was meant to overlap the colours? I had a feeling I should, so did...in places..

I also remembered that to get the circles I wiped the baby wipe through a stencil:

But the pastel marks still showed so I smoothed them with the baby wipe too. The result wasn't looking much like the example above:

So I then 'enjoyed the process' (!) and threw anything and everything I had to hand at it. It is now a title page for the rest of the book:

'A Place to Create for the Fun of it'.

I still wanted to do a page that was like my original index card, so I laid down some more colour, overlapping a little more this time and then simply scratched into it using a stencil and an embossing tool.

...And I did enjoy the process (together with the end result!), but I must see if I can locate those original instructions...

My next 'NOW' art activity is going to be Collage, so hope you can join me soon,

Friday, 8 May 2015

I am still progressing with my 'arts and crafts to do NOW' list (see previous posts) and the next activity on my list was Gelli Printing.

Just a few of the many pages that I made this time.

To make the textures I used objects I found around the house. The circles on the matchbook notebook on the very top left picture (in orange and yellow) were actually made with a shower suction mat that I (purposefully) bought from TK Maxx to use for this type of printmaking.

When I completed my gelli printing I decided that I wanted to layer them even more. I love seeing elements of previous textures and colours peaking through. The problem I had was technical. How do I get my top layer to only cover the parts I want it to without obliterating the interesting bits of the previous layers? So, rather than gelli printing another layer on top (which I could have done if I'd thought about it a bit harder) I spread some paint directly from the tube on to my craft mat and spread it on to the print with a spatula. This meant I could control where the paint went and how much. Finally, I wiped it around with a baby wipe to cover a wider area.

I was wondering what I could do with the prints I had made when I remembered this book I had got (also from TK Maxx), which has some great ideas of things you can make with a small amount of paper or indeed, just an envelope!

So, using their instructions and template I decided to make these matchbook notebooks.

The gelli prints were stuck on to thin card for the covers and pages of thin paper were stapled together for the inside. Reading the instructions in the book, it said to sew buttons on to the front so you can then wrap string around to make closures (see picture).

Well, I found myself some appropriately coloured buttons and then discovered that they didn't have shanks on their backs to wrap the string around. So I improvised:

I cut a hama bead in half with scissors (this was remarkably easy to do) and stuck each of the halves on to each of my buttons with a plastic glue. I also used the plastic glue to stick the buttons on to the notebook and also to add beads on to the ends of the string. This picture shows the back of the books:

The books are very small (just 5 x 3.5cms) and a bit delicate with the buttons, but useful for a quick note or quote and they make a useful emergency gift.

Hope to see you next time when I will be showcasing my next list item, Art Journaling.

Friday, 1 May 2015

So, moving on in my 'Art & Crafts List to do NOW,' I did indeed get on with the next one on my list, Encaustic. The one thing I was hoping wouldn't happen when carrying out this craft did - and that was to burn myself. I was doing very well until it came to clean up time when I momentarily glanced away from the iron that I was cleaning with a piece of kitchen roll - and promptly burned a little blister into my palm - ouch!

Before that I was quite enjoying this craft and found it relatively easy. This, I have to admit, was greatly helped by the fact that I had watched a beginner's guide to abstract encaustic earlier on in the day.

I initially thought encaustic meant embedding things into wax, which would have meant putting my much neglected Melting Pot into use - but when I checked online, I found it was more to do with layering and 'painting' with coloured waxes.

A very, very, long time ago I bought a set of encaustic waxes, together with some glossy card and a travel steam iron. This was around the time that it first became popular. More recently, I was able to add to the wax collection when I spotted some in a local charity shop. I tend to use my materials with more abandon when I know I have a plentiful supply. It's when they are limited that I tend to be more cautious and 'keep it for that special project' that never seems to happen...

As I was a beginner (again! the first attempts were so very long ago!) I decided that abstract was the way to go. Maybe I will move on to landscapes at a later date, when my wound has healed....

Simple materials needed, glossy cardstock, colourful waxes, kitchen roll and an old iron (preferably non-steam but I didn't use the steam facility).

I used the techniques shown in the above youtube video which meant smoothing down the wax on the iron and then quickly swishing it across the paper. Lifing up the iron created those lovely organic tree like marks.

You could avoid getting the outline of the iron by using an iron more suited to the purpose, the type with interchangeable heads.

The difference between now and when this product first came out is that you can now alter your finished 'painting' simply by using various photo manipulation techniques onto your scanned masterpieces. This simple technique just wasn't available to us then. For this my go tos at the moment are Pixlr or the free version of Picmonkey.

This was my first attempt, which was fair enough in green...

...but lets see what it looks like without colour:

This piece was my ultimate favourite as I think it looks like a galactic waterfall.

And altering the contrast made the colours 'pop'.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I worked on a craft mat with strong cardboard underneath to protect the kitchen work surface. The mat ended up getting very messy!

Back soon with my next 'NOW' craft which I've just checked is Gelli Printing. I have done some of this recently, but you can never do enough of gelli printing, can you...?

Thank you for getting through this very long post and for stopping by today,

Sunday, 26 April 2015

Regular visitors to my blog will know that I am in the process of completing a Art & Craft technique 'NOW' List. So far on my list I have done Lino Printing, Shrink Plastic and Hama Bead Crafting. For this project the plan was to do Foiling. I combined foiling with the craft of decopatch and made these wish hearts:

My original plan was to do conventional foiling and this idea of using a laser copy print with a laminator appealed. I'd even treated myself to a cheap laser printer a couple of months ago so I could do crafts like image transfers. So many instructions for image transfer techniques say you have to have a laser copy, rather than an inkjet. The problem I had was with my laminator. It just refused to feed the paper through at all. I even tried with a second laminator (yes, I have two!) and that didn't take it either.

So then I tried the simple technique of drawing with glue and foiling. I tried the Zig 2 Way Glue and the Appli glue, both of which should have worked, but didn't. Even though I allowed the glue to dry to a tacky state, the foil didn't stick so I gave up on that idea...

...And instead made some faux foiling using shiny gold gift tape:

I stuck three strips down onto some ordinary white paper and burnished it flat with my nail.

Next I made my word 'WISH' using my Cuttlebug and Cuttlebug letter dies.

I was wondering where to put my foiled letters when I remembered the decopatch set and paper mache hearts that I had been sent to test by Baker Ross.

This is how the hearts look as blanks:

The technique of how to do Decopatch is very simple and described on the back of the packet.

You rip small pieces off and glue them on to your object overlapping each piece. They do suggest Decopatch varnish glue but I hadn't got any of that so used a PVA/Water mix. You also add the glue mix on the top of each paper as it acts as a varnish.

I started to make the hearts with just the thin decopatch paper but then I decided to add some coloured old book pages too.

The paper from the books was a bit thicker so it was trickier to stick around the edges of the hearts.

After completing the hearts I gave them a final coat of the PVA/Water mix and coated them with multicoloured glitter.

Tip: Don't hold the hearts by the gold string much as it falls out. I had to glue two of the threads back on.

After sticking on my foiled letters I left all the hearts to dry before giving them a final coat of spray glossy varnish. This will also help to prevent the glitter coming off when handling.

And there you have it.

Another crafty technique to cross off the list. The next one on my list is encaustic which I am quite looking forward to. I just need to brush the cobwebs off that Ranger Melting Pot and all those waxing craft accessories that I bought all those years ago...

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On Creative Flourishes you will find examples of my photography, mixed media artwork, cardmaking and general art & craft making. Hopefully I will inspire others (as others inspire me) to get creating too! I also include snippets of my family life with my husband and my two boys, aged 15 and 12.